Australia criticized over Afghan killings

China on Monday strongly condemned the killings of Afghan civilians by Australian soldiers, with Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying saying that the Australian government should feel “ashamed” by the murders.

A recent report found that Australian special forces were allegedly involved in the murders of 39 Afghan civilians, in some cases executing prisoners to “blood” junior soldiers before inventing cover stories and planting weapons on corpses.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian earlier tweeted that he was shocked, alongside a graphic satirical image appearing to show a special forces soldier holding a bloody knife at the throat of an Afghan child, whose head is wrapped in an Australian flag and who is cradling a lamb.

Twitter screenshot

The post angered Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said Zhao’s tweet was “utterly outrageous” and demanded an apology. The Australian government has asked Twitter to remove the image.

At the press conference, Hua fired back at the demand and questioned Morrison’s response. “Does the strong reaction of the Australian side to my colleague’s personal tweet implicate that the callous killing of innocent Afghan civilians is justified while condemning such crimes is unreasonable?” she asked.

“The lives of the Afghan people are also ‘lives’ and what the Australian government should do is to reflect deeply, bring the murderers to justice and make a formal apology to the Afghan people,” the spokesperson added.

As for the image posted on Twitter, Hua said that more attention should be paid to the connotation instead of the source.

“The purpose of the image is to show people’s indignation at such crimes,” she said. “I think what the Australian government should do is to face facts and further investigate whether or not its troops have committed such atrocious crimes in Afghanistan.”